The gnome was in no shape to travel with us, even though he needed more care than the village could provide. We promised to send someone for him, and he wrote out a note for us to post to Morgrave University. Finally, we were off to the southeast. The first day was quiet, but on the evening of the second day, as we set up camp, Alunys and I noticed a large wolf approaching from the south.

As it got closer, we realized that it was covered in bony plates; I pulled my bow, warned the others, and let fly, but the arrow bounced right off! The wolf charged me, biting, and I found out the hard way that its jaws were dripping with acid. Fang missed a bite, the unicorn missed its attack, and then Defender and Tomas plowed into the fray. When the wolf turned on Defender, I crawled away to try again, only to see more wolves appearing from nowhere!

The new wolves didn't have bony plates, at least, but they converged on Tomas for some reason. Alunys shot a smiting arrow at the bony wolf, while Fang attacked a "normal" wolf to draw it away from Tomas. Tomas was rolling on the ground, trying to get away from the pack, and I was slashing away with my scimitar, but two pulled me down again - at least I saw the unicorn finish off the leader of the pack!

Fang and the unicorn attacked the again, while I crawled out of the battle a second time to regain my feet. Fang and the wolves were trading bites, Defender got mauled, and Tomas was unconscious on the ground; Alunys tried to get to him and was pulled from the unicorn's back! I healed myself up somewhat and rejoined the fight, but there seemed to be more wolves every time I looked around. The unicorn healed Tomas enough to wake him, but now the grass and foliage seemed to come to life and entangle us all. We HAD to find who was behind all of this!

As we began to get the upper hand in the fight, I started scanning the trees around us for a glimpse of the druid that I was now certain was guiding our attackers. Nothing. Even after we finished off all of the wolves, and the entanglement ended, I could catch no hint of whomever set them on us. I was very frustrated! But back to the party; we had a lot of healing to do!

Thankfully, the horses hadn't scattered far, and eventually we settled down for the night at our original camp. Defender stood watch, while we hoped for the best and went to sleep.

The night was quiet, and the next day. Defender wanted to stop and camp under a lone tree, so that we could sleep in the branches and ambush any possible attackers. I did some more healing, as did the unicorn before disappearing for the night, then climbed into the tree to satisfy Defender's whim while the others slept below. Fang got my bedroll. The night was quiet, so - onward!

On the sixth day, we arrived in the small city of Varnar. Tomas was disappointed that the city had no wall, therefore not meeting his ideal of a "real city". Then, he wanted to know about "papers", which Alunys said we'd take care of in the same place that she had to send the gnome's message from. And that we could not forge them (with a glare at Tomas!).

After a quick argument over our "reason for travel" - we settled on research - we bought identification papers. Mine even has a portrait of myself and Fang on it. We then headed over to the Silver Flame's church, then to an inn for a night's rest. We stopped by House Lyrander to give them news of their airship, which they already knew about, and Tomas suddenly announced that he wanted to sell the gold statue.

Of course, it was way too pricey for this area, and I ended up feeling bad for Alunys, who got a lot of stares - druids and their companions aren't too rare around here, nor warforged, but she stuck out. Eventually, Tomas gave up on selling the statue (this is a trade center for ranches, not treasure), and ended up putting all his cash and gems in an "account" at the House "bank". I kept mine in hard currency, thanks!

Finally, we made it back to the inn, and went to bed.

Not for long - I woke up to Alunys screaming "Assassins!!!" and running out the door of our shared room! I leapt out of bed, saw her leaning out the window at one end of the hallway, and turned to look down the stairs at the other end. I saw nothing. Meanwhile, Alunys was shouting for Defender, and I ran to check on Tomas. His door was locked, and he wasn't answering our shouts!

It took several tries to break the door down, and when we did - the room was empty. I was telling Alunys that they must have gotten to him first when Tomas popped out of hiding, which was a relief, and accused me of trying to get in his bed, which I answered in an unprintable fashion. He claimed not to have heard us knocking, but before we could argue the point, we finally heard the sound of steps on the stairs.

The halfling proprietress was naturally outraged at the ruckus we were raising in her establishment! I told her about the attack (Alunys had hollered out at some point that she'd been hit by a dart), and realized at the same time that Alunys was looking really sick, to the point of sitting down right where she stood. I headed for our room to collect our gear, and discovered that the whole place had been ransacked! My cursing drew Tomas to the door, who accused us of being slobs.

The window was now wide open - and empty, of course. I picked up everything, realized that none of my stuff was gone, and took Alunys her gear, which she quickly checked. None of hers was missing, either! While we were scratching our heads over that, the town guard arrived. Their head investigator was NOT happy with me, as I'd messed up his whole crime scene. I apologized as best I could, told him our story, and offered to pay for the broken-down door. They were able to discover that our lock had been picked, the next question being: why attack the Silver Flame, first?

Defender and Fang and the horses were all right, and he guarded us for the rest of the night. In the morning, I prayed for a lot of spells to restore Alunys' strength after the poisoning, and we got ready to go. The innkeeper waived our charges as an apology for the attack happening there, and the investigators let me go with a warning not to touch a crime scene next time!

I wonder what they were looking for...

For some reason, I had assumed that whoever was following us was primary after Alayi or Tomas. Alayi, because she is a Gatekeeper druid, and Tomas, because he’s Tomas. Defender was worried about our pursuer as well, though I am uncertain he has thought through just who that pursuer might be. On the third night of our journey to Varna, our warforged friend was delighted that we had stopped under a tree, as he had some plan to “trap” it to thwart the one that might be following us. We are unsure exactly how the trap would work or even who would make it. Ravanquar snorted at the thought, pointing out that if the attacker was a druid, it was quite unlikely that we could trap him ourselves with just the aid of a tree. With that, he disappeared for the night, and Alayi and I climbed up in the tree to rest. Tomas and Fang were happier on the ground below, and Defender spent the night pacing around the outside. The night was peaceful. In fact, it was peaceful for the next two nights as well, right up till we reached Varna.

Varna is much bigger than Mossmantle. Neither Tomas nor Alayi had been to a city that size (and if Defender had, he was likely oblivious to it). We went to the marketplace to attempt to sell some of our “finds” such as the golden dragon statue, but Tomas couldn’t find a dealer willing to pay what it is worth. I felt eyes on us and realized that even in this somewhat larger town, Ravanquar and I were not “blending in” well (I will have to remember this feeling for when and if we make it to Thrane, as my friends will likely feel as conspicuous and I would spare them that). I started to worry that perhaps we were standing out too much in this crowd of merchants and traders and quietly suggested that we let Ravanquar take our most valued items with him to his celestial home plane, as it would be as safe as any Kundarak bank. Ironically, we found the Kundarak bank to be the best place to exchange our coins and gems for something easier to carry. We also made sure to get identification and travel papers for those that had not traveled through Khorvaire before, and dropped Professor Bramble’s message off at a House Sivis message station. We even found a representative of House Lyrandar to report about the disaster near Mossmantle and learned that they had dispatched a salvage team. Tomas believes that this is proof that they are “crashing and burning” ships all the time.

We obtained rooms at the High Saddle Inn; Alayi and I in one and Tomas next door. Defender opted to pace around the outside of the inn. Alayi took the bed and I pulled a rather comfortable chair over to near the window to meditate.

I’m not sure how long we had rested when I felt a sting of a small dart in the back of my neck. I shook it off and turned in time to see a tube being pulled out of our cracked-open door— a door that had been locked when we retired. “Assassin!” I cried to Alayi as I raced across the room and yanked the door open the rest of the way. I saw an open window at one and of the hall and ran towards it while Alayi banged on Tomas’ door and ran down the hall the other way. Neither of us found the attacker, but Tomas had not emerged from his room either. I yelled out the window, hoping Defender would be nearby and ran back towards our doors to help Alayi kick Tomas’ down, praying we weren’t too late to save him. He was fine, but had hidden when he heard the commotion until he woke up enough to realize it was us.

By now the innkeeper had arrived and moments later, some town guards were there as well. I had to sit down— I suddenly could not, even by force of will, stay upright any longer. I was able to weakly tell the guard what had happened and to please go find Defender while Alayi checked our room and discovered it had been ransacked, and now our room window was open as well! Nothing had been stolen, though the leader of the guard was mortified that Alayi had “tampered with a crime scene.” I am uncertain if I was the target, or if it was just a very dim-witted thief after the dragon statue (I say dim-witted because Tomas had been the one carrying it in the marketplace, not Alayi or I).

Defender was found and brought back to us, and was quick to tell me that my color was all wrong. In fact, he had never seen me with color! I assured him I’d be okay in the morning. We stayed all in one (new) room after that, with Defender standing by the door the rest of the night. Thankfully, we got adequate rest, and Alayi restored enough of my health with spells that I am able to travel today. We plan to leave for Fairhaven as soon as Ravanquar makes an appearance.

Before we left Mossmantle, Defender insisted on buying horses for Tomas and Alayi (I have Ravanquar). Defender (and of course, Fang) will be able to keep up on foot. I received a letter from the gnomish professor to post at a Sivis message station. We hope to reach Varna in six days; I regret that I will miss the First Dawn celebration in Thrane, but am sure that the Flame still leads me on an important quest.

We traveled for a day, camped, traveled again, and were setting up camp near the forest the second evening when we were attacked. A large bony-plated wolf, acid dripping from its lips, charged us. Thankfully Defender and Ravanquar were able to dispatch that, as our arrows bounced harmlessly off its hide. We were busy enough fighting four other wolves that suddenly appeared, and I saw that Tomas had fallen as they surrounded him. I dropped my own guard to attempt to reach him, and was pulled down myself. Alayi and Fang had trouble of their own as three more wolves joined the fray. It took much effort to defeat them; it did not help matters that the grass we stood on suddenly grew to entangle us. We felt sure that our true assailant was hiding from view, but we could not detect evil (or anything, for that matter) in the woods; Ravanquar made a quick search when he was clear of the grass, but found nothing. For safety’s sake, we let him take the two adamantine map plates with him as he left us for the evening, hoping whatever attacked would not follow to his plane.

After a short break we decided to climb down the rope and check that last tunnel. I am unsure of what exactly transpired, being slightly preoccupied with the realization that the Flame had provided me with a companion (more on that later), but Tomas and Defender were having some sort of argument as they both went down into the ruins, resulting in both landing badly at the bottom of their descent. I was yelling down to them that the Flame would not want me to waste divine healing on tomfoolery, when I realized that Defender had landed on his back, his backpack under him. Alayi and I were down the rope in a flash, and in time to see Defender pull the broken remains of the clay tablet, carefully rapped in Alayi’s bedroll, from the crushed pack. I asked Tomas to just do a rubbing of the larger pieces and collect up the rest, but not all was lost; the tablet had contained a disc or key like the one that we’d found on the golem, though this one had a sapphire in it. Alayi said the map depicted on it looks like swampland in the Shadow Marches. This felt like it must be what we were looking for, but to be safe, and since we were already damp from our previous excursion, we opted to do a cursory search of the last unexplored area of the ruins.

We wandered through some halls with waist deep water, examining murals depicting hobgoblin warriors battling against denizens of Xariat (prior to the time the gates leading there were sealed). Some areas contained green stone benches and… something with tentacles! Defender was grabbed by something, but cut it in half before we got a good look at it. Not to worry though, as it had three companions! Gricks, with their sharp beaks and grasping tentacles were coming towards Tomas and I as Alayi’s weapon bounced off another. I was hit so hard by one I had to ask Tomas to please look for me if I slipped under the water. Defender killed two more, and I was able to hit one, but the warforged really did most of the damage to our assailants— he would make a fine addition to the holy warriors of the Silver Flame. I was pretty weak afterwards, but I would not summon my companion for our first meeting while in the dank hobgoblin ruins.

Fortunately no more of the gricks were to be found, and we came to a large pair of wooden doors, swelled shut from age and water. Once we broke through that, Defender took a step in and disappeared from view! He was back a few moments later, telling us he’d slid down a flight of steps. He suggested that he go down and explore alone, since he was the only one of us that didn’t require air, so armed with a magic torch he again disappeared down the steps.

He soon came back up, flailing a skeletal arm over his head and yelling that they were coming right behind him—and sure enough, ten and a half hobgoblin skeletons were following him up the steps and attempting to attack him. The three of us that had waited above the water backed quickly to the doors, planning to close them if the skeletons proved too much, but I had to try to turn them at least. Thank the Flame, the entire lot were turned to harmless dust.

Defender took another walk around the watery level, but found no more undead to put to rest, so we decided to leave.

When we got to the surface, I felt it was safe to call my new companion to me, and did so. I am doubly blessed by the Silver Flame, as not only is my companion a sturdy mount, but also a healer. A unicorn appeared as if just stepping out form the trees beyond us, introduced himself, and provided healing for those of us that needed it. This is apparently another creature that Tomas knew nothing of, but at least allowed Ravanquar to heal him. The unicorn stayed with me for about half the day each leg of the trip, departing to a higher plane in between times.

Four days of blissfully uneventful travel ensued, and we found ourselves safely back in Mossmantle, for we had agreed that we needed to speak to that gnome again. Professor Bramble, the poor thing, is still there, he needs some serious healing, more than I can provide certainly, if he ever hopes to walk again. After a few questions to be sure that he was truly not responsible for the golem’s behavior, we shared the disks we found with him— he had known about the first one, which had also been found in a tablet (which, translated, told some story about the demon wars) in the Morholds. It had been stolen from Morgrave University, and he had actually tracked the thief from Aundair to the ill-fated airship, not realizing the thief was under demonic influence.

We need to talk to someone from the Church, I think, as my knowledge of demonic possession or binding is far from complete, and the gnome needs proper healing that we’d only find in a bigger city. While I would be pleased to have my new friends in Thrane to celebrate First Dawn in a few days’ time, time may be of the essence. We’ll have to take the lightning rail to the nearest big city and perhaps, from there, go to the Demon Wastes.

Sure enough, the tablet was smashed to fragments and dust. Defender rolled the whole mess up in my bedroll, insisting that we could magic it back together at a later date, and Tomas made a rubbing of what fragments we could piece together. He stuffed the paper into his own bag, then picked up something that had fallen out of the tablet when it smashed. Another six-inch disk! This one had a sapphire in the center, and a different map. It looked like the shadow marches, to me. We talked about how to find out more - perhaps the injured gnome? - but first we had to check out the passage that we'd walked away from before.

Instead of stopping at the water's edge this time, we walked right in. Defender carried a torch over his head, while Tomas dragged his magical torch through the water, hoping to see anything coming his way. The water reached three feet deep, and then we walked out of the passage and into a long vaulted chamber with openings to each side. Defender walked to the closest opening and peered in. More carved walls showing hobgoblin warriors, and green stones - slime-covered benches - stuck up out of the water.

Across the hall, we found another room that looked the same. I looked at the aberrations the hobgoblins were fighting, recognizing several from my own experiences... but then, Defender walked inside the room and was attacked! Tentacles in the water! He was grappling with several; all we could see were tentacles and suction cups and a big beaked mouth. I shot right at it - but the arrow bounced off! Thank heavens Defender's arm sword cut right through and killed it easily. Especially as Tomas and Alunys were shouting that more were coming from down the hall and across the way!

I got hit by a tentacle while putting my bow away - ow! And pulled my scimitar. Defender was shouting, as he was now at the rear of the battle instead of the front, leaving Tomas and Alunys to fight as best they could. That meant Tomas hitting me with an arrow and a fast apology! Another tentacle hit me, but I was ready with my scimitar and slashed at it in return. Still nothing; the blade bounced away. I backed off, realizing that I could not do anything but get out of Defender's way. Sure enough, he killed it with a single blow again. Must be the magic in his sword?

I backed down the length of the room, healing myself, alongside Tomas. Alunys was ducking and weaving around the tentacles, while Defender dispatched the creatures as fast as he could. When all were dead, we walked to the end of the hall and discovered a set of doors with large brass rings to pull them open by. Water and age made them stiff, but finally we were looking through the doors at an even larger chamber. Defender stepped inside and promptly fell down a set of underwater stairs...

We waited for the glow of his torch to return; he asked us to wait a bit while he searched the lower halls, then made his way down the steps again. We saw him turn a corner, and his light fade away. Tomas hadn't even gotten bored yet when we saw the light coming back at a faster pace! He came up the steps, yelling, and broke the surface while waving a skeletal arm and shouting, "They're coming!!!" Sure enough, several skeletal hobgoblins were following him up the stairs.

As Defender stopped and turned, swinging his fists at the skeletons, Alunys pulled out her holy symbol and held it up. When the skeletons ignored her, I headed for the doors, shouting to the others that we should get back so I could close them up again. Tomas was already there, but Defender kept fighting to "hold them off" and Alunys was trying to get him to come with us. I got one door closed, and held the other ready, and then Alunys decided to raise her holy symbol and turn the skeletons a second time.

They crumbled to dust, collapsing in front of her! Defender will be a willing convert yet, I think! But first, he waited a while in case more skeletons were coming, and then walked back down for one last check of the area. He found more rooms and halls, rotted wooden doors, and nothing more of interest. Finally, he too was ready to head back to Mossmantle.

When we reached the surface, Alunys had a surprise for us - she has a unicorn companion! The unicorn healed several of us, but it disappears sometimes as well. At least the rest of out trip back was uneventful. And the gnome was still in Mossmantle! Poor guy needs some serious healing for his legs, still, but he was curious about what we'd seen and found. Eventually we showed him the "new" key, and decided among ourselves to check out the Shadow Marches to see where the map led to. Alunys is still following her vision prophecy, I want to make sure this isn't a threat to the Towering Wood, Defender is following Alunys, and Tomas just wants to see a city.

And we have to go to a city to catch a lightning rail as the fastest route to the Marches. (Hope Fang is willing to put up with this adventure). But we have to pay attention; the gnome thinks demonic possession is a big part of why things are coming up evil that normally wouldn't be. And the entity is obviously interested in the same thing we're trying to figure out!

I handed off the torch to Defender and decided to cast fire from my hand instead, as we saw movement in the webs. Spiders of many different sizes poured out of the webs as we cleared them, some were nearly as big as Alayi’s wolf companion! I was bitten at least seven times and felt my strength sapping by the time we cleared the hallway and subsequent chamber of the creatures— nearly two dozen of the very large bugs littered the area by then.

Now that the way was clear of spiders, we had a chance to examine our surroundings. The big chamber had murals and engravings of hobgoblin warriors on the walls, a well, and an altar. The altar had a “dragon motif” and was of interest to Tomas, who found a hidden compartment in the base. Inside, he found a box containing a mirror, a magically-lit torch, coins, a valuable blue spinnel, and a statue of the dragon Eberron cast in gold. It is all very nice, but not, I think, what the “evil” that sent the golem here was looking for.

As much as we wanted to check the well, there was no easy means of climbing down and we all needed a good long rest. We cast what healing we could on each other and let Defender get to hammering the dents out of his body, planning to check the well in the morning, or at least whatever was passing for morning since we couldn’t see the sun.

After a long respite, we felt recovered enough to continue. Defender offered to climb down into the well— though the original access to it either involved a now-rotting ladder or pulley system (now sans rope), we had to resort to carefully making our way down the rocks. It was a good 40’ down, with about 3’ of water at the bottom. He carried a torch down, and Tomas ran back to the corridor with the lakefront view to see if the glow of Defender’s torch was visible, but couldn’t see it. Defender did declare the well bottom to be fairly safe though, so the three of us climbed down.

We found ourselves in a hallway filled with niches containing bones and ossuaries. The bones we could see appeared to be hobgoblin. More halls of reliquaries branched off of this main corridor. We continued on and eventually came to pair of stone doors with a circular indentation where a lock would be. Tomas inserted the adamantine disk we’d found on the golem and the doors swung open. Inside, we found a 30’ by 30’ chamber with skeletal hobgoblin guards lining the walls, leading up to an altar. We walked between the guards, half expecting them to animate, and examined the altar. While there were no hidden compartments on this one, there was a clay tablet sitting on top of it— perhaps the item sought by the evil that sent the golem? While my friends tried to determine if it was safe to pick up, I lifted it from the altar— if it was the item sought, it was better to be in our hands than left alone guarded by dead hobgoblins. Flame be praised it wasn’t trapped in any visible manner. The tablet is in some language that none of us can read, so we carefully wrapped it and placed it in Defender’s pack for now.

We wandered some more then, mostly because none of us were looking forward to the long climb back up the well. We were fortunate that we came upon a stairwell and so climbed that. It lead to a mostly-dead end, but Alayi found there was a slight breeze and dim light above us, and climbing up on Defender’s shoulders and then carefully picking her way up the rest of the way, she found herself back on the forest floor. She returned with her rope so the rest of us would have an easier time of it. I admit it is good to be above ground again, though we will have to check that last tunnel with the lake in it just to be sure we have everything that needs retrieved.

The new passage led to a half-collapsed chamber. Dire rat sized tracks crisscrossed in the dust on the floor. Alunys heard the sliding of stones, whispered a warning to me, and I looked at the rubble but saw nothing. I began to back out of the room anyway, but now Tomas was asking us what was going on, and Defender walked past me into the room for a closer look. I pulled my bow as Defender caught sight of several large rodents coming our way and began swinging his sword!

The rats were large, with bony armor and acid saliva burning the stone when it dripped from their jaws. Defender slew one, I missed with my scimitar and pulled my bow, and Alunys announced that the rats themselves were evil! She smote at them, while Defender killed a second and Tomas cheered him on from the doorway. Alunys was swinging her warbow at one, while I traded shots with the last, getting bitten in the process. We quickly finished them off and Alunys healed me up.

Defender had walked yet further into the room; now he shouted to us that there were more rats coming, and Alunys saw evil around them as well. Now, I knew that horrid rats are not usually evil, but neither are golems. Something odd is going on! But for the moment, we had three more rats on our hands. Defender was doing most of the work, and I noticed that Tomas had wandered off somewhere ("to his death, probably", I muttered under my breath), but we stayed in that room until all of the evil rats had been destroyed and the room searched.

We walked back to the main room, looking and listening for any sign of Tomas. None, but an arrow left on the floor pointing down the eastern exit, so we followed. We soon heard a commotion, and ran, finding Tomas locked in battle with a giant spider! He killed it on his own, however, so we followed the tunnel as it sloped downward, until we reached water. Defender continued on into the water (I swear, that Tomas is as finicky as a cat!); although it wasn't very deep we waited for him to scout ahead.

He was soon back, telling us of a large room with slabs of stone and strange runes. Since Tomas still didn't want to get wet (and Defender refused to carry him), we headed back to check out the western route, too. Defender and Alunys led the way - so they were the ones who fell when the floor collapsed! A forty-foot shaft, and our friends at the bottom. I lamented the fact that I was the only one to bring rope, which was now our ladder out of the ruins, and watched Defender and Alunys begin a very slow climb up.

Tomas got bored waiting, and jumped across the gap to the other side. I followed, warning the others to climb to the inside, then waited for them while Tomas roved ahead in search of something new. He was back before the others climbed out, telling us about spiderwebbing all over the walls ahead. I healed Alunys a bit when she got out, hoped Defender would last until he had time to repair himself, and got out my bow. We walked down to the webbing, using Tomas' flaming torch to burn through the webs until we reached the end of the hall, and a large room could be seen. Hmm... do we clear all of this out?

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We decided to go for it, and moved forward into the webs. We were talking about how best to burn them away - the torch in Defender's hand, a blue flame in Alunys', but the *whoosh* of the webs going up in smoke quickly got a reaction. As large shadowy spidery forms began to skitter through the webbing, Tomas fired his crossbow while I held my fire, waiting for them to close in. Sure enough, a spider soon got within Defender's reach and was smashed - and then several more swarmed him!

The spiders were biting at Defender but not even hurting him, so we stayed back and shot at the ones on the ground. A single arrow was usually enough to kill one. Alunys was using her blue flame to set them ablaze as well. We moved slowly into the room, still burning the webs away, and a high arched ceiling began to come into view. Still more spiders attacked, too, and their bites hurt! The floor was covered in bones, and we could see a pit in the floor at the end of the room. First, however, we had to deal with the spiders - big, bigger, biggest! And dropping from the ceiling or swarming across the floor, they were determined to do us in.

Tomas stayed by the door again, shooting at spiders as he could get a clear shot. Defender was determined to do most of the fighting, as the spiders' poison didn't hurt him at all. He got in my way a few times - I'll have to apologize for booting him in the butt the one time. Finally, we finished off the last spider, and were able to search the room in peace. The walls were covered with scenes from a goblinoid city. It had an altar to the dragon Eberron, and strange runes on the walls again. Defender was doing some quick repair work while Tomas went over the altar, sliding back a secret panel and pulling out a locked box.

He quickly had the box open, revealing an everburning torch, a small mirror, a sack of coins, a gem, and a small gold statue of a dragon. Alunys went through the coins, trying to figure out their age or region, but they were unfamiliar to her. So, we turned our attention to the pit in the floor. When all we saw was water, we decided it was time to take a break! Defender bashed away for eight hours, then stood watch while the rest of us got some much-needed sleep. He then finished his repair job, but not before I climbed the rope and checked on Fang. She was enjoying the wilderness!

Although Tomas noticed a pulley system above the pit, and Defender discovered the remains of a ladder down the side of the pit, I thought it safest to leave our one rope where it was. Defender climbed down the pit, while we talked over which pool of water to wade through first - this one, or the eastern route? When Defender reached the bottom (and the water here, too, was only about three feet deep), Tomas grabbed an extra torch and dashed off to check if the glow could be seen at the other pool. While he was gone, Defender described what he was seeing - carved stone walls, bones in niches, and exits to his left and right. When Tomas returned (no luck on a connection between the rooms), we all climbed down into the crypt together.

The exits led off to the left and to the right. Defender headed right. The passage was ten feet wide, with more niches full of bones along the walls. Defender was looking for "stuff" but I was pretty adamant that that was a bad idea. Luckily, we didn't see anything to test our resolve. The skulls in the niches were humanoid, but not human. I am pretty sure they were hobgoblins. There were smaller branches off the tunnel, but they ended after a short distance, holding more burials. About a hundred feet down the passage, however, we entered another chamber. This one had large columns down the length of it, and stone statues of hobgoblin soldiers against the walls.

This chamber, unlike the others we'd entered, had a set of stone doors at the end of the hall. Better yet, a circular indentation in the middle looked like the lock to fit the disc! Alunys looked for evil while Tomas fit the disc into the indentation, then twisted it - and the lock opened! We shoved at the doors, pushing against the water on both sides, until we could enter the next chamber. This one held a raised altar, above the waterline. Along the walls were six skeletons, dressed in corroded armor. We stepped inside, expecting the skeletons to come to life, but... nothing. Tomas headed for the altar.

On it, he found a clay tablet. It was covered with undecipherable marks - more of the runes like we'd seen on the walls. I'd rather we left it sit, and maybe make a copy somehow, but Alunys decided it was safe to pick up. She felt that it was important to take away the item that the "evil" wanted. The back of the tablet was blank, there was nothing on the table beneath it. I wrapped it up in my bedroll for safety, and we stashed it in Defender's pack. Tomas checked the altar for any hidden compartments, found nothing, and we left the altar room, locking the door behind us.

We decided to check out the left hand passage before climbing out (no one looked forward to that climb). This one led us past many more burial niches, and ended in another chamber, although this one had no doors. Tomas searched the room and discovered a concealed door. On opening, he found a staircase leading up. So, up we went. The steps led us into a new room, with only one exit - and the passage had collapsed. I thought hard about all of our wandering, and decided that this was not the other side of the collapsed passage by the rats' room, but we still had reached a dead end. Yet, as I stood there, I noticed a breeze...

The fresh air was coming into the room from somewhere over our heads. We found an air shaft in the corner, a narrow opening that led straight up. I could make out a faint light at the top, so I asked Defender to lift me up, and began to climb. I went slowly, but after thirty feet or so, I reached vegetation. I poked my head through the overgrowth, and found myself in the forest. It looked familiar, so I whistled for Fang, who quickly found me! I asked the others if I should get the rope, they yelled back "Yes!", and soon everyone was back aboveground, although Defender has a few new scratches to buff out.

It's only noon, so we've decided to head down one last time. We want to check out the other flooded chamber. Even Tomas, since he got soaked in the crypt anyway...

We headed through the north exit first, and found it branched off— there was a collapse in the tunnel one way, and a chamber (also filled with debris from what had been the ceiling) in the other. We probably would have left that right away to check the other two exits from the main room, but I heard some rocks clatter, and after I scanned the room, found a trace of evil. Defender saw movement, and quickly found himself being attacked by horrid bony-plated rats, acid dripping from their mouths! Alayi, Defender and I killed over a dozen of them, while Tomas wandered off to look elsewhere. Alayi and Defender both got splashed by the acid and required some healing. That done, we did a quick survey of the room and found nothing of interest, though there was speculation that these unusual creatures had been left there to guard something. Anyway, we needed to find our wayward young human.

At least we could tell he wasn’t deliberately hiding from us— a chalk arrow pointed us to the east tunnel. We found him standing beside a large freshly-killed spider and a rather large body of water. Defender waded in and declared it would be about up to our waists if we wished to cross it; we opted to check out the third tunnel first.

The west tunnel contained a nasty surprise. Defender and I were walking ahead of the group and managed to find a pit trap— neither of us was able to jump away in time as the floor fell out from beneath us. We fell about 40’— I was surprised I hadn’t at least broken an ankle, nor was Defender badly hurt; glory to the Flame! We took about 15 to 20 minutes to climb out of the pit, since we had no rope. By then, Tomas and Alayi had hopped across the 10’ hole in the floor to investigate what lay beyond— a hall festooned with webs— big webs! Alayi healed me a bit, and Tomas handed me a lit torch— do we continue forward through the webs?

We arrived in a field about two miles from town to find a horrific scene. The broken bodies of the Lyrandar ship’s crew and passengers were scattered in a wide swath, among fragments of the broken and smoldering Silver Star. The fire elemental that powered the ship was gone, and it seemed no one could have survived. Knowing I’d find evil, I attempted to search the field for it, and was rewarded with a faint aura near the edge of the wreckage. I went to find Defender for help clearing away debris, and found that he had found the only survivor of the crash, a gnome with horribly crushed legs. He got the gnome out and Alayi provided some stabilizing healing for him. While she did that, I turned back to where I’d sensed the evil, and found a huge stone arm. A farmer told me that he’d seen a one-armed stone man walking towards the northwest, away from the crash site. The gnome, Roland Bramble of Morgrave University (Sharn), was going in and out of consciousness, but said he knew stone man; it was supposed to be his protector on his journey. Something had caused it to go berserk and smash up the ship, causing the crash, but it had not been “evil” as far as he knew. He handed me a ring that would prevent it from harming the bearer, and asked that we find it. The gnome passed out again and was being carried back to Mossmantle to rest; we agreed to leave immediately, as there was nothing we could do for the dead other than bring their killer to justice, if possible. Defender decided to bring the stone arm along, though I doubted we’d have any trouble recognizing an evil, one-armed stone man!

The aura of evil was easy enough to track, as was the trail the construct left through the fields and forest. Our only real problem was that it was outpacing us, and did not need to stop for rest. If only we’d had some horses! We attempted to pay to borrow some from a local farm as we passed, but they needed their animals to bring in their crops. Still, we covered at least two dozen miles before I noticed that Tomas looked like he was going to pass out from exhaustion, so we made camp. While Defender took watch, I found some berries and asked Alayi to use her druid magic to fortify them; they’d have to last us if the journey took more than another day.

We did the same thing the next day, and the next, thought that night our camp was attacked by a wraith. I smote poor Defender again in the ensuing combat, but he just shrugged it off and went back to watching over us.

After another day of travel, we found ourselves deeper in the Towering Wood. Soon we heard the sound of stone hitting stone, and followed a trail to some overgrown ruins.

We entered the clearing and found the one-armed man pushing rocks away from a stone well cover. Whatever its reason, I felt that we shouldn’t let it finish the task. I ordered it to stop and help up the ring, and it hesitated. I attempted to detect for evil again; the results provided me with such a sensory overload that I actually had the wind knocked out of me— I don’t recall ever sensing such evil in my life! Perhaps noticing my distress, the construct decided to attack and hit me so hard I thought its fist had gone through my torso. I dropped the ring in Tomas’ hands as I staggered back to heal myself; he attempted to get its attention while Alayi tried to pull the well cover back over; Defender waded in and just started pummeling the other construct. When I felt I could stand, I attempted to smite the thing (and didn’t hit Defender this time!), and then cast fire at it. This helped wear it down, but I think Defender’s strength is what really did the evil thing in. After it crumbled to the ground, a disc of adamantine was found in the debris; it had a ruby placed in the center, and a map of what looked like this clearing engraved on it.

With the demise of the golem, the evil aura was gone— and I didn’t sense any in the well. Alayi thought it should be closed while we rest anyway, and I agreed— I didn’t want to deal with any surprises for a few hours at least! Defender helped put the heavy stone cover on and then began repairs on himself while Alayi foraged for us. Tomas identified the ring we had attempted to use on the golem as a “Shield of Faith.” Too bad it hadn’t worked!

After a blissfully uneventful night, we pushed the stone cover off the well and Alayi put a rope down the opening, a magical torch suspended from the end. It revealed a floor about 40’ down. We all climbed down (with the exception of Fang) and found ourselves in a 30’ by 30’ chamber with three exits….

As we spread out to check for signs of life, the paladin scanned for signs of evil, too. She focused quickly on a faint trace to the northwest, but Defender discovered someone still alive under parts of the ship. He began hauling pieces of junk off of a gnome, Alunys scanned him and said he was not evil, and I reached in between rescuers to give him a quick stabilizing healing spell. He needed more help than I could give; his legs were crushed.

The ship itself was named the Silver Star; its crew consisted of humans and half-elves, all dead. Fang and I took a quick sweep around the area, looking for signs of anything leaving the crash site, and ran into a farmer telling the Silver Flame that he'd seen a large stone man heading northwest; a tall granite giant that was missing an arm. Back to the gnome we went, hoping to learn more.

The gnome was awake, and asking what had happened to his golem. We asked if it was the stone man, and he told us how it, his bodyguard, had gone berserk. The crew couldn't stop its rampage. We asked him several other questions - who are you, why was the ship headed this way? - but he lost consciousness again. The warforged was ready to charge off into the unknown right then and there!

The gnome woke up again, thankfully, and was able to tell us a bit more. The golem wasn't evil, he said (!), and it would not harm the ringbearer. He gave an iron ring to the paladin, telling us that the golem was supposed to obey the wearer's instructions. When he fainted again, we searched him for more clues, and found papers identifying him as Roland Bramble, from the city of Sharn, Morgrave University. Alunys said that people from there spend their time looking for "things".

I decided to find the golem's missing arm, if possible, for our evil detector as well as for an idea of what to look for. I was glad to find it, and gladder still that it wasn't moving. I half expected to see it crawling off to the northwest... Alunys saw evil within the thing. Defender decided to take it along "just in case" and slung it over his shoulder. Tomas found a golem footprint, and I found more; back toward the Towering Wood we went!

It was a slow trip, and I didn't dare speed up; although it went generally northwest, the footprints didn't take a straight line. After some miles, the Silver Flame tried calling it back with the iron ring, but we looked over the plain and saw nothing. After almost twenty miles, we could make out the treeline of the Towering Wood ahead - but Tomas was keen on getting horses from somewhere, and detoured to a farmhouse nearby.

The farmers hadn't any horses to spare, but pointed us toward a horse ranch some hundred miles out of our way. We thanked them and continued. Of course, Tomas was tired, and didn't mind letting everyone know. Defender even offered to carry him but he kept trudging and talking until the paladin started to take pity on him, too. When he plunked himself on the ground and refused to take another step, I shrugged, curled up, and went to sleep!

In the morning (thanks, Defender, for watching for us!), Alunys could still sense an evil aura to follow. We set out on the trail, despite Tomas' opinion that we'd gone plenty far enough on this chase. The Silver Flame disagreed, telling him about the Voice that had told her a prophecy that seems to fit this event. She seems a little obsessed! They argued over philosophy for a while. The warforged commented on the increasing number of trees (although still a day's walk from the Wood), and insisted that someone should climb up a thirty-foot sapling for a "better look". I climbed one to make him happy, saw nothing, and we walked on.

We stopped at nightfall, and in the morning, the paladin had found berries for us to eat. Apparently, no one had much in the way of trail rations - hence Tomas' desire to turn back! I was able to cast a spell on several of the berries to make meals for my companions, and we kept on. Finally, at the end of the day, we reached the treeline. There was a definite trail to follow through the underbrush!

That night, we could hear wolves howling, but they didn't come too near. In the morning, I found blackberries to cast Goodberry on, shared them out, and prayed while Alunys worked on converting Defender again. Of course, all he wanted to know about were the military prospects within the Silver Flame organization...

We walked through the forest all day long, following the trail of footprints and faint evil. At nightfall, I went searching for more food, then went to bed, leaving Defender to stand watch. It is nice that he doesn't have to sleep...

I didn't get much sleep, either. We were woken by shouting from the warforged as he swiped at a black shadow with red-lit eyes. The paladin shouted that it was a wraith, then hit Defender with one of her arrows again. I saw Fang heading for the other end of the clearing - good girl! - and focused on casting a healing spell as I took a swipe at the shadow for myself. I got its attention - ow! - and Defender slashed it again with his magic sword arm, causing it to dissipate. I healed myself up and went back to bed!

In the morning, I cast my spell to feed us, and we were on our way. We hadn't been travelling for long when we reached the outskirts of ancient ruins... and heard the sound of stone hitting stone! I quickly snuck up to see what was happening. I found our one-armed quarry, picking up rocks and throwing them to one side as if he was uncovering something. Interesting!

I snuck back to the others to tell them what I'd seen, wondering aloud how long he'd been at this project? Alunys put on the iron ring, and the warforged prepared to "slam" it; I think he's been imagining a battle with someone like himself the whole time! Defender and I agreed that we did not want the golem to uncover whatever it was working on; it's possessed by evil, after all.

Out walked the Silver Flame, and commanded the granite golem to stop digging. It stopped, stood up and looked at her. Tomas turned out to be curious about what was being uncovered, but she ordered it to re-cover the spot anyway. Then, she decided to sense the evil in the area - and was stunned by the intensity! Naturally, as soon as she went into shock the golem lurched toward her.

It drew back before it hit her, at least, which gave Defender his opportunity to "slam" it. With the golem occupied, Fang and I ran to the spot it was working on to see what was there. We found a stone shaft leading down, and a lid partially pulled away from capping it. Who knew what was down there? I quickly started shoving it back into place!

Alunys shook herself and pulled out her bow, but her arrow bounced harmlessly off the golem. It turned and swung at her, anyway! She was hurt, backed up, and gave the iron ring to Tomas. He told it to stop again; it looked at Tomas but did not back down. As it walked toward the two of them, Defender hit it again. It still swung at the paladin but it missed; she got out of the way as Defender slammed it a third time.

I kept shoving at the lid, the Silver Flame circled behind some ruins so as to heal herself, and Tomas backed away fast while telling the golem to stop - repeatedly. The golem kept turning to chase after the paladin (all that good energy!), which gave the warforged lots of chances to hit it. He was taking big chunks of granite off it. He was also taking a good deal of damage as the golem fought back.

Alunys decided to try her fire spell again, and blue flames were soon arcing over the ruins and searing the golem. Tomas was still shouting orders at it, so I called to him to help me shove on the lid. It was heavy, and I wanted only one enemy at a time! Thankfully, Defender was able to crush the golem to pieces; he immediately set to repairing the damage to himself.

While he did that, we peered over the edge of the shaft. Still quiet, and the paladin sensed no evil - that was a relief! The golem's body still had a faint aura to it, which left us a mystery as to how it had become possessed. Tomas searched through the golem rubble and discovered an adamantine disk with a ruby in the center. On the disk was a relief-styled map to these ruins. And it wasn't evil, either. The place seemed more interesting to me, after that!

I suggested closing the lid for the night (just in case), then checking out what was inside in the morning. So, we shoved it over the opening, and I went out to forage. I came back to find Tomas checking out the iron ring and the warforged still at work; at nightfall we went to bed. The next day, Defender had to finish his repairs, so I went out to find food to last us while exploring. I came back with four days' worth.

The disk looked to be some sort of key, too - it had odd bumps on it. We tied a light to my rope and lowered it down the shaft, finding it to be about forty feet to the bottom, and opening out to a chamber of some sort. I decided it would be better to leave Fang outside, and gave her a hug and directions to be careful! Tomas tied the rope to make it easy to climb, and down we went...